Ireland’s richest people named-- Liam Neeson, U2 on list

The list of Ireland’s richest people are out and to no one’s surprise the big losers are developers and speculators. Gone is Ireland’s richest man for many years, Sean Quinn, once worth $10 billion now bankrupt.

Top of the list is Dublin-born Hillary Weston married to Canadian billionaire Galen Weston who have a combined wealth of over $13 billion. The only criteria was that people have Irish citizenship or residency.

In second place is mobile phone entrepreneur Denis O’Brien of Digicell at an estimated $5 billion.

Biggest loser apart from the property developers is Sir Tony O’Reilly, of Independent Newspapers and Heinz fame , who the list compilers say lost $400 million of his fortune last year and is now worth $628 million.

Some notable names well known in America include Liam Neeson, the actor worth $100 million says the list and U2 who the list says are worth $1.1 billion.

Bob Geldof, the Live Aid creator whose production company has a license on ‘Survivor among other reality shows is worth $1.2 billion according to the list.